Best hair modelling software?

[maelstromragex]

I got this from AI

• dForce hair (Daz):
  • dForce hair is a part of the Daz Studio software, which is primarily used for character creation and animation.
  • It offers a wide range of hair styles and customization options, making it relatively easy to create and style hair.
  • Daz Studio supports various file formats, including OBJ, FBX, and DAZ formats, which can be exported and imported into other 3D software.
• Curve hair (Blender):
  • Curve hair in Blender is a more manual and procedural approach to creating hair.
  • It involves creating and manipulating individual hair strands using Bezier curves.
  • While it offers a high degree of control, it can be more time-consuming and challenging, especially for complex hairstyles.
  • Blender supports various file formats, including OBJ, FBX, and Alembic, which can be imported into other 3D software.
• xGen hair (Maya):
  • xGen is a powerful hair and fur grooming system in Autodesk Maya, widely used in the visual effects industry.
  • It offers advanced features for creating and styling hair, including support for dynamics and simulation.
  • xGen hair can be quite complex to learn and use, especially for beginners.
  • Maya supports various file formats, including OBJ, FBX, and Alembic, which can be exported and imported into other 3D software.

Is this correct? I invested time into Blender because I think it has a good future, but I will try Daz now

 

[woody554]

do it in blender. either the particle hair that always looks like it's cut with a rusty dildo, or model hair cards and have much more of a hairstyle. or model like 3d hair cards (same exact idea but you just make sort of 3d bananas instead of extruding an edge to make hair cards) for a more anime-style. there's tons of tutorials.

 

[maelstromragex]

do it in blender. either the particle hair that always looks like it's cut with a rusty dildo, or model hair cards and have much more of a hairstyle. or model like 3d hair cards (same exact idea but you just make sort of 3d bananas instead of extruding an edge to make hair cards) for a more anime-style. there's tons of tutorials.

I'm currently using Blender and happy with it, has tons of customization but requires a lot of time to dev.

 

[OsamiWorks]

The AI is hallucinating a bit but generally there are 3 options.

People in ZBrush use imm chains to do what Blender does with curves for mesh hair. Its just a preference for styliation but if you do that you should start by sculpting out the shape first to know what you want in that route. The other two options are particles and hair cards. I have only barely touched on particle hair, you create an emitter, then groom it by cutting and stylizing it like a weird barber. Otherwise hair cards are just a few strips that are planes that youve mapped a hair like texture, then you duplicate, manipulate, and place those around a head. Some tutorials might make you use a curve for that in blender but dont get confused since its not the same as having solid mesh hair.

-Mesh hair, used in stylized games, 3d printing, fig sculpting, and what I understand the most
-Particle hair, can be realistic or stylized often a preference for nsfw blender artists
-Hair cards, used in real time engines, less intensive use than particle while achieving a similar look

 

[woody554]

-Particle hair, can be realistic or stylized often a preference for nsfw blender artists

the thing I hate about particle/polyline hair is how people seem to always scale/extrude it out in a way that makes the hair ends so different lengths that it looks like it was cut with a dull stone axe. like the last time it was cut was 3 years ago and then you just let it grow out wild like a hobo. and the result is 99% of polyline hairdos look like a bird's nest that no woman would ever get caught dead having, like straight out "fire your hairdresser and find a new one to fix the cut the same day" territory.

and that's why I really almost invariably prefer hair cards because at least then you're forced to model the hair mass ends in a deliberate way and pay attention to the style and how and where they should curl in or out or whatever the chosen cut requires. it just invariably looks more like an actual hairstyle because you didn't just rng generate it.

 

[OsamiWorks]

Thats more of a skill issue on the artist. Tbh being a groom artist is its own thing and not many people do it, if you learn how to do particle in blender, blender tries to make it close to like cutting hair and styling hair irl but im clueless on it. I think particle hair can be converted to hair cards but I never got far enough into it. Hair cards arent easier tbh, they are both a bit of work to learn

 

[woody554]

Thats more of a skill issue on the artist. Tbh being a groom artist is its own thing and not many people so it, if you learn how to do particle in blender tries to make it close to like cutting hair and styling hair irl but im clueless on it. I think particle hair can be converted to hair cards but I never got far enough into it. Hair cards arent easier tbh, they are both a bit of work to learn

yeah but the thing as always is that almost none of us are hairdressers and great modelers, so people overwhelmingly don't even understand there's a huge problem with the hair assets they make. where as hair cards force you to think about it.

(combining particle hair and cards is as easy as using the generated hair as a curve you fit the card geometry on. then you control the card by controlling the curve.)

 

[OsamiWorks]

I just wanted to point out that good hair artists are a niche with their own role called groom artists. If you do nsfw you are forced into a generalist role on top of doing stuff like that, learning how to do niche skills well is a big time sink itself

 

[maelstromragex]

Osami, that point is very valid but if I can make okayish hairs for now that's fine

I guess most people use hair cards and maybe I should switch
I didn't because curve hair seems to be easier to customize the materials

 

[OsamiWorks]

When you see mesh hair done with curves it usually looks really bad,

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. For games its simplified down and league of legends is a good example of it done well. I personally dont feel like mesh hair and hair cards are different difficulties material wise, but if you do mesh hair with a curve, how you paint the albedo map is a bit more important imo. With hair cards its just some hair like lines drawn on a texture and you move the islands around until they look good enough then start the hard part of actually placing it on the head. Im not really a texture artist and dont know much about it tho, Im strong on technical art stuff like rigging.

Just for some context

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since I only do mesh hair.

Spoiler: exposition dump

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[Guntag]

It's so rare to see good hair, even in AAA mainstream games. Most of the time, characters will have short hair or tied hair (bun, etc...) in order to not have to worry about hair.